There are babies who fall asleep as little angels while others never seem to want to sleep. To the first you neeed only a little care and warmth, for the seconds the challenge is greater because if the baby doesn’t sleep well, parents also do not and the whole family enters a difficult cycle extremely tiring.

There are situations in which the lack of sleep is linked to the child’s maladjustment to the circadian cycle, passing many times most of the day sleeping and standing guard during the night. It is therefore necessary to teach the baby to sleep, establishing routines.

The baby must learn to recognize the natural differences between day and night. The usual life of the house with the noises of the movement during the day helps your baby to realize that there is difference in relation to the quiet of the night.

Likewise creating routines, such as milk, bath, bed and diaper change, help your child to recognize the moment of sleep. Generally if the routine happen at the same time the baby will begin to feel sleepy.

Of course after all the ritual there are babies who wake up and cry, others that call by parents and others, knowing already walking, flee to the parents bed. With everyone should insist on the usual routine to create the “good behavior” of sleep.

If despite all efforts if the baby cannot sleep well several nights in a row parents should seek medical advice.

In addition to the routines, it is important that, from the end of the afternoon, the baby is in a calm environment and where playing that can excite is not allowed.

How to act:

• Baby up to 3 months – Create a consistent routine for bedtime, preparing the baby’s room to sleep (evening; during the day do not dim the room nor avoid the usual noises). At this stage your baby wakes up every three hours to breastfeed and fall asleep. When completed six months should have his biological clock adapted to the circadian cycle.
• 3 to 6 months – keep the consistent routine you have created for bedtime and add something new like a music so that the baby notes that this sleep is different from others.
• 6 to 12 months – keep the previous ritual and go out of the room until the baby fall asleep, because with you nearby he may extend this time, even if it is to fall sleep.
• Up 12 months – Probably your child manages to get out of bed on his own and, upon waking, will tend to go to your room. Avoid that if used to go to his bed, getting up whenever the baby approaching and taking him to his room. He will understand that you have to sleep in his bed and end up giving up.

In conclusion the key factor for success is the routine, create habits so that the child recognizes and understands the world. The sequence of activities and the maintenance of timetables give security and a sense of time.